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Today, Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s party-line vote to approve Howard Nielson, yet another Trump nominee with a significant history of anti-LGBT advocacy:

“After the public outcry over the nomination of Jeff Mateer, we would have hoped that the Senate Judiciary Committee would have gotten the message that the public is fed up with the White House’s stream of judicial nominees whose records reflect disrespect and disdain for LGBT people.

But yet again today, we see Chairman Grassley pushing ahead with another such nominee, Howard Nielson. As a lawyer, Mr. Nielson had no qualms advancing arguments that have ranged from challenging the legitimacy of LGBT identities and families to impugning the integrity of a gay federal judge who did not rule his way. Mr. Nielson’s decision to advance such reckless arguments should raise doubts in anyone’s mind about whether such a person could administer equal justice under the law to LGBT people.

The 70,000 LGBT people living in the State of Utah – and anyone who cares about a fair and impartial judiciary – were let down today by the Senate Judiciary Committee.”